GUILTY (Gabe's Trials)

No escape

"This is the end, right?" Rebecca's hands stilled on the back of the black leather corset dress I was forced to wear, but she didn't make a sound. I slightly shook my head. "You can tell me. I'm not scared anymore. I just want it all to end." The knowledge that nobody was coming for me and Ginger had numbed me a long time ago. I felt no fear, no pain... Nothing. Not anymore. 

"I don't know..." Rebecca whispered, her hands starting to fumble with the laces of the corset again. The dress hugged my body tighter, pressing over my wound and making me gasp. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you." The woman quickly mumbled, spunning me around and softly running her hands through my blond hair. "Can you walk?" She asked, taking a step back and letting her eyes scan over my entire body. Normally that question would've been absurd, but considering the fact that I hadn't used my feet in what felt like forever, that the dress I was wearing was so thinght I could barely breathe and that I'd never wore heels so high before, I was not so sure I could. 

Slowly taking a tentative step forward, I tried to balance my weight from one foot to the other without actually falling flat on my ass. Rebecca was right next to me though, her hands shooting forward each time I woobled, her tiny frame so very determined to follow me around the room while I tried to get used to walking again.

"Will you be there?" The question just popped out of my mouth, making the young woman freeze to the spot. 

"I can't help you anymore, Julia. I took care of you. I kept stalling them, hoping that Gabriel would come for you, but he hasn't and now I don't know what else to do." Those whispered, shaky words made the entire world collapse around me. This really was the end and that little, crazy part of me still hoping for a way out of this mess was slowly starting to fade away, leaving me exhausted and broken. I still needed to know that Rebecca would be there, though. This entire time, she'd been my only friend. I needed her to at least be there for me.

"Please." My hand grabbed hers and weakly squeezed, my eyes full of unshed tears.

"I'll be there." She pursed her lips into a thin line before letting go of my hand and starting for the closed door. Placing her hand on the knob she stopped and lowered her head. "I wish I could..." Her voice broke, her shoulders sagging. "He would kill me if he knew everything I'd done for you. Marco doesn't deal easily with betrayal." I immediately took a step forward, my mind instantly coming up with a solution to that. 

"Then leave. Help me and Ginger get out of here and come with us. We'll run. He'll never find us."  A short, unamused laugh escaped her lips.

"I'm his protege, Julia, and he's all the family I have. I may not be ok with his choices and actions, but I could never leave him." Just like that, the little hope I had left was gone in an instant. She belonged to him just like Ginger and the other girls at the mansion belonged to Gabriel. "You don't get it. You don't know what it feels like for your life to depend on somebody else's will. He has the right to kill me anytime he wants. He owns me. And if I tried to run away... He would find me, Julia." The air in my lungs refused to come out, my heart almost bursting out of my chest. That word again... So this was what a protege really was. This was what Gabriel had asked me to become. "I'll be there tonight, but that's all I can do for you. I've put myself in danger too many times already. I'm sorry but I need to start thinking about myself." Pushing the door open, Rebecca stepped out of the room without so much as glancing back at me while I tried to come to peace with the fact that I had just lost the battle for my life. Fuck...

$$$

The door opened and I stood up from my chair, facing the man who wanted to kill me. Marco was wearing a perfectly pressed black shirt, unbuttoned at the collar and a pair of black jeans. He was the grim ripper personified.